1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing control apparatus and a printing control method that control printing by a printing device, which is connected, for example, with a personal computer. The present invention also pertains to a computer program product that gives the function of the printing control to the personal computer.
2. Description of the Related Art
When a printer or printing device is connected to a personal computer and print data prepared by the personal computer are printed by the printer, it is generally required to incorporate a device driver for the printer (hereinafter referred to as the printer driver) into the personal computer. The printer driver is a computer program that sets various pieces of information regarding the printer, such as functions of the printer, an interface, font data, and control codes, in the computer to control the printer, and is provided for each model of the printer used for printing.
The functions of the printer set by the printer driver include a function of expanding the area on a printing sheet on which an image is printed and a function of simultaneously printing a plurality of pages on one printing sheet. A known printing control apparatus having the latter function is disclosed, for example, in JAPANESE PATENT LAID-OPEN GAZETTE No. 60-178530. In this printing control apparatus, switches disposed on a switch panel are operated to specify the number of pages to be printed on one printing sheet and the output position of data from the left end of the printing sheet. The print data are edited according to these specified conditions and output to the printer. This realizes printing with respect to the plurality of pages to be printed simultaneously on one printing sheet.
In the conventional printing technique, it is required to specify the number of pages to be printed on one printing sheet and the output position of data from the left end of the printing sheet, in addition to the size of the printing sheet. This makes the operation rather complicated and results in the poor convenience of the user.